prototype_seriesfandomcom-20200213-history
No Man's Land/Synopsis
NOTE: MANY OF THE PLOT POINTS HERE ARE VERY PROOF-OF-CONCEPT. I DIDN'T WANT MY CREATIVE DRIVE TO FADE WHILE WAITING FOR YOU GUYS TO GET ON CHAT SO I DECIDED I'D JUST STORE THEM HERE, LETTING THEM FLOW UNINTERRUPTED. DISCUSSION ABOUT IT IS WELCOME AT ALL TIMES UNTIL FINALIZATION. Picking up immediately after the previous episode left off, Rashard and Mig sit atop a skyscraper watching the storm die down. The lights in the city begin to go out and clouds clear, keeping the electrified dome in view. When they return to ground level, they are caught off-guard by an additional spark of electricity appearing near where the electric creature they encountered was destroyed. They realize it was triggered by a piece of metal in the area, and find a scorched necklace with the word STOCKER written on it. They assume that the reason the creature survived for so long was because the necklace was an additional conductor of electricity. Questions remain: was it really a human they saw? If that's true and he was wearing this necklace, what connection does it have? Was the man's name Stocker? They ponder this before disappearing into the night scouting for any occurrences triggered by the storm. What they don't see is a strange, shadowy entity stalking them around. Rashard and Mig are wandering the streets of the city finding nothing but small spots of wreckage. They suddenly spot a light source glimmering far in the distance. They scale a sufficient height and see a rather tall building sparking with light. Improvising, Rashard flattens himself into a sort of "metal surfboard" which Mig uses as a platform to propel himself into the air using blasts of heat. This works to some extent until they are surprised by a gigantic trench separating two large sections of a city. After a violent crash-landing, they realize it was formerly an ocean (the word "ocean" triggers some flashy images in their heads). They get up inside the dried seafloor and are able to view the building a little closer. The letters "STO" are visible with the rest being cut off by other buildings in the way. Immediately assuming that it says "Stocker", they begin to climb up to the bridge separating the islands. Rashard and Mig have reached a point on the bridge at which it's split in half, with the other side drooping down to a mangled cluster of debris. They narrowly make it across individually before they spot "Stocker University" in the distance. Assuming that the creature they encountered was formerly the founder of the university, they continue to head towards it until they start seeing lights in the street reactivate. A billboard pops up with messages that begin to communicate with them, with the messenger saying they "watched them" and that they "have a story to share". It asks them to "follow me" before a door automatically opens into a building. They cautiously follow with other TV screens nearby starting to display more messages, including "your only sign of hope is something that rid you of all your past hope" followed by "interesting". They end up in a dark corridor full of large glass-walled rooms filled with computers. Mig and Rashard wait until several computer screens start to turn on. They display messages saying how the only thing they could be attracted to now is what sealed their fate many years ago. The two demand to know what their messenger "remembers", but all it can tell them is that it remembers "the worst part of the past and nothing else". It turns on a trail of lights that lead them to a balcony overlooking the campus... the buildings ahead all have their lights reactivated. The two are stunned and beg the messenger to keep it this way. The messages claim that "this way" is the "delusion of prosperity that led the blinded into their deathtrap". It wants to "show them the right way". Suddenly one of the buildings' power overloads and it collapses. The two react in horror. The messages say "I knew it, you're just as blinded. You need work. Thankfully there's time." Suddenly the platforms around the balcony mechanically give way and the two are thrown to their deaths hundreds to feet below. They survive, of course, landing in the courtyard. Another screen appears and tells them "I'm convinced you can fight this. See how dangerous this gets?" They respond by saying they can definitely "fight it" and start threatening their messenger. The messages respond with remarks on how this abuse of power was what society "enabled itself" with before "rightfully witnessing the consequences". Mig and Rashard remain thoroughly confused, but the messenger says that it knows how much they're struggling to remember their past. It wants them to let it "teach them". They demand actual facts. Mig and Rashard's messenger stays quiet, so they decide to head to the part of the city that was momentarily reactivated. They plan to look for a power source somewhere but several lights start up again, with billboard-cast messages notifying them that their messenger is in full control. Another building is destroyed and the messenger tells them that this was what it felt like for those who saw how poisoned people were by the digital world. The two beg the messenger to tell them why it's doing this. It replies "to make you understand. I need to you accept what I've told you as the truth. I need you to accept that your gravitation to the ghosts of the past will result in you perishing yet again. And this time you won't wake up." Rashard asks the messenger to tell them why it feels technology sealed Earth's fate. The messenger offers to show them instead of telling them and requests that they reach the top floor of the skyscraper at the center of the Stocker University campus. Mig and Rashard take a lengthy elevator ride to the top of the skyscraper. However, when they make it to the top, the window overlooking the city sees at least five more buildings in ashes. They spot the silhouette of a man standing there. Mig attacks him but it's merely a hologram... of Trevor. The words "ACCEPT THIS" are projected on the window before a new Trevor hologram appears, now with sound. He explains that the only way to save them from "succumbing to the monsters and becoming slaves again" is to say a quick and thorough goodbye to the world that came before them. He says it was too "consumed beyond repair". Rashard furiously asks if he was responsible for whatever happened to the Earth. Trevor denies, but says he'd feel proud if he were. He says the "last feeling he could remember before waking up was satisfaction, a feeling of being at peace" and that he "hates waking up to the same nightmare after it was all over". They ask him what happened. Trevor's hologram looks down with a somber expression. Images are seen of him standing over Cassie's gravestone before they "glitch" and fade into static, triggering some facial twitching from the hologram. Rashard asks what happened again. Trevor says he "can't remember", that he "wishes he could show them, but that this is the only way he can right now". He overloads the machines inside the tower and causes it to collapse. His face starts to appear across the billboards and Rashard and Mig threaten to "find him". He says that "he is everywhere" and that "they are at his mercy", adding that "he was in the same position as they were for his entire life" and that "humanity finally witnessed what he witnessed" before they "got what was coming to them". Trevor explains that his nightmares became a reality "firsthand" but he "never did enough". He's heard narrating over sequences of Rashard and Mig running away from exploding cars, TV's and internal servers through overload. These scenes are intercut by flashbacks of Trevor being apprehended by the police and escorted through the precinct. Trevor appears on a TV screen in front of a collapsed skyscraper and tells them that while he never did enough to stop his nightmares, "society did it for him." While he reactivates and overloads the holographic roads and digital systems, the flashbacks show the Earth exploding. This time, however, we get it from a streetside level as buildings get crushed like soda cans. Inside the precinct, supercharged lightning strikes and scorches everything. Trevor, however, is hit by a surge coming from one of the servers nearby, which got overloaded. Instead of dying, his body holographically dissolves and is literally absorbed into the computers, with his freely floating conscience being unleashed into the digital open. Trevor's voice echoes simultaneously throughout every screen in the island, saying how this is the only way Mig and Rashard can be prevented from "digging their own grave". Mig demands to know why Trevor can't just tell them what happened, but Trevor insists that "this is what happened", and that it's "all he remembers". Suddenly, a purple strike of lightning zigzags into a blur that appears for a split second, travelling through the city and intercepting the CPU overload in most buildings. The lights suddenly go out once the circuit has been cut off. Trevor's digital conscience, which was confined to the power circuits running through the island, rapidly fades. Trevor dies apologizing, with his distorted voice telling Mig and Rashard to "make the right choice". In a split second, sparks fly out inside all the buildings in the island. In the distance, this is seen through a window in a deep pit surrounded by concrete walls and wreckage. Deep within the darkness, a silhouette awakens, outlined by a gentle fire.